Shaun’s Story

Shaun suffered a huge set of losses in his life, including his friends, family and his house. He ended up with nothing, was completely isolated and fell into deep depression. Shaun believed he had nothing to live for and felt suicide was his only way out.

“I went to the doctor to explain what was happening in my life, and the doctor gave me some medicine, but it just numbed my feelings. It didn’t solve any of my negative thoughts and didn’t change my outlook on life at all.

I asked for some counselling and my doctor provided me with a hearing counsellor, but there were communication difficulties and a real lack of deaf awareness, both of which failed me. I discovered SignHealth on the internet and then showed BSL Healthy Minds to my GP.

To me, it doesn’t matter if a counsellor is hearing or Deaf as long as the counsellor is qualified in BSL and counselling, and has Deaf culture awareness. If a counsellor doesn’t qualify, counselling is very ineffective. BSL Healthy Minds is excellent because the Deaf community NEED Deaf counselling.

The NHS aren’t considering what Deaf people need to protect their mental health or well being.

Unfortunately, Deaf people are being treated as third class citizens because the NHS tend to focus on mainstream services which are unsuitable for BSL users. Also, BSL Healthy Minds has a 75% recovery rate which outweighs NHS counselling services which only has a 44% recovery rate.

I learnt how to cope with my extreme situation, how to achieve success, how to cope with pressure and stress, how to change negatives into positives and how to cope with being outside of my comfort zone. The most important skills I learnt was ‘Want, How, Plan and Achieve’. I learnt all of this from my BSL Healthy Minds counsellor.”

If you have a story to tell, please email *protected email* Susan and Andrew have also both shared theirs.

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